Chinese Leaders Court Queen Elizabeth : Extravagant Welcome Soft-Pedals Controversy Over Hong Kong

China’s top three leaders gave an extravagant welcome to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday in a series of sessions apparently aimed at persuading the British to keep the political lid on the colony of Hong Kong until it is returned to China in 1997.

In a single day, the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, met with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and his top two aides, Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang and Premier Zhao Ziyang. Much of the time was taken up with what a spokesman for the royal party, Michael Shea, at one point termed “gossipy conversation.”

“How is your sister, Princess Margaret?” the Communist Party general secretary asked at one point. “She is very well, thank you,” the queen replied.

Deflecting Attention

Underlying the pleasantries, however, was a Chinese effort to portray the disputes between China and Britain over Hong Kong as a thing of the past--and thus to deflect British attention away from current controversies over how much democracy it should allow in Hong Kong over the next 11 years before China takes over.

“With the successful solution of the Hong Kong question, our duty now is to develop the friendly relations between our two countries,” Deng told the queen. “. . . It is in this context that I wish you the warmest of welcomes.”

In 1984, after two years of arduous negotiations, Britain and China signed an agreement paving the way for Hong Kong, the trading and financial center of East Asia, to be returned to China in 1997. In exchange, China promised to preserve Hong Kong’s capitalist economic system, its legal system and many of its civil liberties for another 50 years after that.

The 1984 agreement also promised Hong Kong’s local government “a high degree of autonomy” under Chinese rule and said specifically that Hong Kong’s legislature will be elected.

Growing Unease

Since then, China has watched with growing unease as Hong Kong residents have pressed the British government to open the way for direct elections so that a strong representative government will already be in place by the time China takes over.

At the moment, Hong Kong is still run by a governor appointed by the British Foreign Office in the name of the sovereign. Its legislature has only advisory powers; until 1985, it consisted exclusively of civil servants and appointees of the governor.

But last year, for the first time, British authorities permitted indirect elections for some seats on the colony’s Legislative Council, and they have already agreed to review next year how much further to go in permitting democracy in Hong Kong in subsequent elections.

Declines to Answer

Last Sunday, on his way to join Queen Elizabeth in Peking, British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe held a news conference in Hong Kong and was asked twice whether China has told Britain that it opposes any direct elections in the colony. Howe declined to answer the questions.

During the queen’s visit to Peking, which began Sunday, Chinese officials have repeatedly characterized the 1984 Hong Kong agreement as a milestone event that has paved the way for a new era of friendship between China and Britain.

At a state banquet Monday night, President Li Xiannian said that China and Britain “have common interests and responsibilities in defending world peace and maintaining the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong.”

‘Closer Than Ever’

In her speech at the same banquet, the queen said the Hong Kong settlement of 1984 was largely responsible for the fact that “today, relations between the United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China are closer than they have ever been.”

Over the last three days, the Chinese leadership has devoted extraordinary attention to the queen.

On Tuesday, her meetings with Chinese leaders and her visits to the Great Wall of China and a Peking kindergarten occupied the first 11 minutes of the half-hour national news program on China’s state-run television network. The coverage was longer than that accorded to the most recent session of the Communist Party Central Committee.

During his meeting with the queen and Prince Philip on Tuesday, Deng proposed a new form of agreement between China and Britain--one that might solve the weather problems of both countries’ capital cities.

According to the account of the official New China News Agency, Deng “said jokingly that since the climate in Peking is a bit too dry, it might be a good idea for the city to share the wet climate with London.”